What You Should Know About President Trump’s State of the Union Address

The United States is more united than it has ever been. The nation is filled with optimism and righteousness. God is on our side. We can conquer any obstacle with American ingenuity and hard work—because we’re America, and that’s what Americans do.

That’s a brief summary of what U.S. President Donald Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. And as an American, I want to agree with him. But America is in serious trouble. Only God can fix our problems and make America great again.

Look at America’s fierce political division, its looming economic crisis, racial tensions, endemic social upheaval and the multiple billion-dollar weather-related disasters that happened just last year. These are not signs of a healthy, prosperous nation! America is sharply divided, and it has become more divided since President Trump took office.

This obvious national and political division was evidenced by the Democrats’ and Republicans’ responses to the address. While the Republicans were chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” the Democrats sat silent and impassive—even when President Trump announced that he was giving way on key issues like immigration.

President Trump announced in his address that America is more united than ever before. He said that from the time of his inauguration last year, “[a] new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land. Each day since, we have gone forward with a clear vision and a righteous mission” (emphasis added throughout).

A tide of optimism? A righteous mission? That completely ignores the division and vitriol we’ve seen in the past year on both sides of the political chasm. But that same relentless, blind positivity characterized most of the address on Tuesday night.

Here are some of the highlights from President Trump’s State of the Union address. He said:

Tonight, I’m calling on Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs. … We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways and waterways all across our land. And we will do it with American heart, American hands and American grit.

How do we pay for it all? Our government is already trillions upon trillions of dollars in debt, yet we’re still shelling out money. President Trump continued:

The first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age. That covers almost three times more people than the previous administration covered.

In this section of the speech, President Trump capitulated to the Democrats. He is going to let the Dreamers stay in the country—1.8 million of them. As he even said, that is three times as many immigrants as the Obama administration let in. That concession is right out of the liberal playbook—but not even that will placate the anti-Trump Democrats.

President Trump continued:

So to every citizen watching at home tonight, no matter where you’ve been or where you’ve come from, this is your time. If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America, then you can dream anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve absolutely anything.

Tonight, I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have and what kind of a nation we are going to be. All of us, together, as one team, one people and one American family can do anything. We all share the same home, the same heart, the same destiny and the same great American flag.

It’s an optimistic message about bringing the nation together to accomplish big things. But America is far from united. Its government is composed of two diametrically opposed parties. Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand. No U.S. leader can turn this around. Americans themselves cannot make the nation great again—not when we are looking to our own power, might and strength.

Later, the president continued with this same theme:

Over the last year, the world has seen what we always knew: that no people on Earth are so fearless or daring or determined as Americans. If there is a mountain, we climb it. If there’s a frontier, we cross it. If there’s a challenge, we tame it. If there’s an opportunity, we seize it.

So let’s begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our union is strong because our people are strong.

In reality, the Bible says we are sick—from head to toe (Isaiah 1:5-6). The truth is that America has never been weaker! In the very same speech, Mr. Trump commented on the fact that 64,000 Americans die every year from drug overdoses. It’s unfathomable—174 drug-related deaths every single day! Do we really think this problem will be solved by cracking down on drug dealers and pushers?

“The struggle will be long and it will be difficult,” the president said about America’s war against drugs, “but as Americans always do, in the end, we will succeed; we will prevail.”

God doesn’t see it this way. He tells us that if we rely on ourselves, on our own power and ingenuity, then we are cursed! (Jeremiah 17:5).

The president continued:

Together, we are rediscovering the American way. In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of American life. The motto is ‘in God we trust.’ …

Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never, ever forget: The people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it’s the people who are making America great again. [Applause.] …

As long as we are proud of who we are and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve. As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will never fail.

This has been a recurring theme throughout the president’s first year in office: that it is the people who are “making America great again.” But again, God’s Word says, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5). That is America’s real problem: Our hearts have departed from God.

Trusting in America and ourselves won’t make America great again. Trusting in man only leads to greater disunity and, ultimately, destruction. Look where it has gotten us so far! President Trump says, “In God we trust”—but our nation is more godless today than it has ever been. We are proud of ourselves and blind to the fact that we are weak and vulnerable because of our national sins and rejection of God.

The Bible says in Isaiah 1:2 that God has nourished and brought us up, but we have rebelled against Him. Oxen know who their owners are, but we don’t even know who and what God is (verse 3), so we are hopelessly lost. Verse 4 says, “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.” That word “corruptors” means to decay or to ruin, and to perish! We don’t only corrupt ourselves, either. We have corrupted the whole world by our appalling example. That’s the way corruption works: It spreads.

Verses 5-6 say that “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” That is an appallingly accurate description of America today. The whole head is sick! The whole nation is corrupt. The “state of the union” is actually one of appalling dis-union. We are more disunited than ever!

No one is asking, “Why are we being cursed?” No one is recognizing the need for repentance. Instead, the attitude is, “No matter what is thrown at us, we will overcome it by our own power and strength.” Israel is collapsing, but people are still trying to solve their problems themselves, instead of turning to God. That is why everything is falling apart!

In the introduction to his booklet Great Again, my father points out that “[a]nyone who sincerely admires this country wants to see America made great again.” It’s easy to want to believe President Trump’s platitudes. But unfortunately, he did not give the real state of our union in that address.

My father continues:

The Bible has a lot to say about the state of America today. It explains the inspiring reason why this nation was so great in the first place. And why it has been so richly blessed.

The Bible also prophesies that these blessings would be removed in our day. America’s problems are spiritual—and solving them requires spiritual solutions.

Could Mr. Trump’s presidency be prophesied in your Bible?

I’m going to explain some revealed truth to you that should electrify every American. And it will in time. That also includes every person on this planet.

What you read in this booklet can be proved—every chapter. The first chapter reveals some of the greatest fulfilled prophecy ever from God’s inspired Bible.

If you keep an open mind, it could galvanize your life as nothing ever has before!

If you have living faith in this message, it will give you the most majestic reward offered in the Bible.

Please request and read Gerald Flurry’s booklet Great Again. It explains why America was so great in the past, why it is falling apart today, and the only way that our nation will ever become great again.

President Trump is offering physical solutions to spiritual problems. That is why his solutions inherently cannot work. But although the immediate future of America is bleak, the final solution to our problems is the greatest hope that you will ever hear!